Arguments have been made
by some contemporary feminist linguists that female uses of language
differ from male uses. While some argue that the difference may stem
from essential biological differences between the sexes, others
suggest that the differences may stem from women's different
inscription in culture. In this course, we will look at arguments
made by feminist linguistic theorists and other ideological
linguistic theorists about these issues and examine three novels by
British women from the late eighteenth through the nineteenth century
in terms of the questions raised by the
theorists.
Texts:
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Deborah Cameron, ed,
The Feminist Critique of Language
Robyn Warhol et al, eds,
Feminisms
Chris Weedon, Feminist
Practice and Poststructuralist Theory
J.Shaffer, Packet of
articles
Frances Burney,
Evelina
Emily Brontë,
Wuthering Heights
Elizabeth Gaskell,
North and South
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Week
1: Questions of language and feminism: Introduction
Reading:
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Deborah Cameron,
Introduction to The Feminist Critique of
Language
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Informal
Lecture: Introduction to the concerns of the Course:
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I will address the
difference between linguistics per se and discursive
practices, and outline the focus we shall take on each. I
will also explain the kinds of literary discursive
practices on which much of the course as a whole will
focus.
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Week 2:
Poststructuralist Theories of Language and
Subjectivity
On theories of
language:
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Catherine Belsey,
excerpts from Critical Practice (in
packet)
Chris Weedon, from ch. 2,
pp. 21-35; ch. 4, 74-106
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On theories of
subjectivity:
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Catherine Belsey,
"Constructing the Subject, Deconstructing the Text," in
Feminisms, 593-609
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Informal Lecture and
questions.
Weeks 3 and 4:
Language and Psychoanalytic Theory:
Introduction to French
Feminist theories of Language:
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Jacques Lacan,
"Signification of the Phallus" (in packet)
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Overview on
responses:
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Weedon, ch. 3,
43-73
Luce Irigaray:
"Psychoanalytic Theory: Another Look" (in packet)
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Gendering Language, Women's
Language:
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Hélène
Cixous, "Laugh of the Medusa," in Feminisms,
334-349
Luce Irigaray, "Women's
Exile," in Cameron, 80-96
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Response and
Critique:
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Kristeva, "Women's
Time," in Feminisms, 443-462, and selections in
packet
Gilbert and Gubar,
"Sexual Linguistics: Gender, Language, Sexuality" (in
packet).
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Discussion:
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Where do these writers
locate the origin of different inscription into language, or
the difference in kinds of language used? Does it seem to be
possible for each sex to use the language of the
other?
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Week 5 and 6:
Women's Literary Practices
Feminist/Ideological
Discussions/Critiques of these
Practices:
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Joanna Russ, "What Can
a Heroine Do? or, Why Women Can't Write" (in packet)
Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Introduction to Writing Beyond the
Ending (in packet)
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Topic #2: Blocking women's
writing; circumvented this blocking.
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Review of Gilbert and
Gubar's "Sexual Linguistics"
Selections from Virginia
Woolf, A Room of One's Own (in packet)
Elaine Showalter, A
Literature of Their Own, ch. 1, in
Feminisms
Mary Poovey, The
Proper Woman and the Lady Writer, selections (in
packet)
Josephine Donovan, "The
Silence is Broken," in Cameron, pp. 41-56
Judith L. Newton, "Power
and the Ideology of 'Women's Sphere,"' in Feminisms,
765-780
Gilbert & Gubar, from
Madwoman in the Attic (in packet)
Nancy Miller, "Emphasis
Added" (in packet)
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Week 7: Other
discussions of ideological intervention in narrative
Readings:
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Selections from
Mikhail Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination (in packet)
Introduction to Huang
Mei, Transforming the Cinderella Dream (in
packet)
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The rest of the semester will be devoted to discussing
three novels
from the late eighteenth
through the nineteenth century
in terms of the issues
raised by the previous weeks.
In addition, consider the
questions/issues I have raised in conjunction with each
novel.
Weeks 8 & 9:
Frances Burney's Evelina
One topic to consider while you
read: to what extent does the epistolary form of this novel enter
into the equation of the ostensible denial to women of the subject
position, and of feminist disruption of the marriage plot form? To
what extent is Evelina's construction of the subjective self she
presents at odds with patriarchal views of women? To what extent does
her story of her journey toward marriage suggest she's ready to
become relative to her male protagonist, and to what extent does it
suggest she may insist on a continued autonomy? What role might be
played by the appearance in this novel of the (false) Cinderella
motif?
Weeks 10, 11, and
12: Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
Topics to consider: What might
the significance be here of the framed narratological situation, the
fact that we're at a double remove from Catherine and Heathcliff, the
ostensible main characters of the story recounted? What do you make
of the fact that everybody seems to have the same name, or that, at
any rate, there are only a few names which get repeated among almost
all the characters? What might be the significance of the narrative's
being split in two, so that there are really two marriage plots here,
one dysphoric, the other euphoric, to use Nancy Miller's
terms?
Weeks 13, 14, and
15: Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South
Topics to consider: What is the
significance of the marriage plot's being complicated here by other
kinds of issues -- by economic, political problems? What might the
significance be, that is, of the broadening of the world depicted in
the novel in terms of how that affects views of "woman" and the kind
of story she might have? Does Margaret's conclusion in marriage seem
here a drawing back into the kind of subordinate, invisible world
that critics of the marriage plot suggest is unavoidable?
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